Saimaa University of Applied Sciences Tourism and Hospitality, Imatra Degree Programme in Tourism Bachelor of Hospitality Management

Arina Kolomiets

SEASONALITY IN TOURISM EMPLOYMENT

CASE: GRECOTEL KOS IMPERIAL, KOS, GREECE

Bachelor thesis 2010

ABSTRACT Arina Kolomiets Seasonality in Hotel Employment. Case: Grecotel Kos Imperial Thalasso. 51 pages, 9 appendices Saimaa University of Applied Sciences, Imatra Tourism and Hospitality Bachelor’s Thesis 2010 Instructor: Senior lecturer Heli Korpinen

Seasonality is recognized as one of the most distinctive and determinant features of international tourism, affecting all aspects of supply-side behavior in tourism including the labor market. Hospitality industry is considered to be unprestigious and temporary employment. Nevertheless, the image of career in the industry may change due to emerging tourism business and new markets. While seasonality and its challenges are inalienable parts of international tourism, tourism employment with appropriate human resource management, can turn into a and beneficial career.

The objective of this thesis is to understand the seasonality effect on labor,

hiring and staffing, techniques and procedures to handle seasonal challenges in

HRM, as well as find solutions to make seasonal employment in tourism and

hospitality more sustainable.

The special interest of this work is concentrated on staffing techniques of the

company experiencing seasonality. The differentiation in staffing appears to be

one of the major tools for a company coping with variations in seasonal

demand. On the other hand, the company may use additional techniques to

retain the personnel together with their knowledge and skills.

This study examines problems and key features of seasonal employment in

tourism industry, particularly in resort destinations. The methodology of this

work includes qualitative case study including semi-structured interviewing,

participant observation and desk study engaged into triangulation technique.

Key words: seasonality, tourism employment, hotel industry, HRM, staffing,

Greece

CONTENTS

1 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................. 4

2 SEASONALITY IN TOURISM .......................................................................... 5

2.1 Causes and forms of seasonality .................................................................. 6

2.2 Seasonality in Tourism Employment ........................................................... 10

2.3 Seasonality in Greek tourism ...................................................................... 14

3 INTRODUCTION OF THE PARTNER ........................................................... 17

3.1 GRECOTEL KOS IMPERIAL THALASSO .................................................. 19

3.2 Grecotel Kos Imperial Thalasso seasonality and employment .................... 21

4 METHODOLOGY ........................................................................................... 25

4.1 Triangulation approach in qualitative case study ........................................ 26

4.2 Using triangulation in qualitative case study to explore challenges of

seasonal tourism employment .......................................................................... 27

5 RESULTS ...................................................................................................... 29

6 SUGGESTIONS ON IMPROVING SEASONAL EMPLOYMENT ................... 33

7 CONCLUSION ............................................................................................... 36

REFERENCES ................................................................................................. 38

APPENDICES Appendix 1 Grecotel KI Brochure Appendices 2-7 Hotel’s Occupancy/Forecast May-October Appendix 8 Grecotel KI staffing chart Appendix 9 Semi-structured interviewing key questio

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1 INTRODUCTION

Modern tourism industry can be called with certainty the fastest emerging and

becoming extremely powerful on the international business arena. While due to

the nature of the industry, there was always a plethora of new challenges

related to both demand and supply-sides, environment, global crises;

seasonality has been long recognized as an unalienable part of tourism. This

phenomenon is mostly recognized as a problem to be tackled. Almost every

tourist destination in the world experiences seasonality to some extent. Two

major types of seasonality (natural and institutionalized) are seen in variations

in tourism demand, therefore demand in labor force as well. Seasonality affects

all aspects of supply-side behavior, finance, labor and stakeholder operations.

Despite seasonality being a long accepted feature of tourism, there is a lack of

academic research devoted to the topic.

Career in tourism is often seen as temporary employment due to the low pay,

unfriendly working hours and emotional labor. Seasonality makes this work

even more unstable. Therefore employees are exhausted in high season times

and are forced to look for alternative sources of income during off-season.

Resort destinations suffer from this issue to even greater degree due the fact

that tourism is the major employer. The research was done in the company,

which copes with seasonality in Greek tourism for more than 20 years. The

study helped understand the challenges of seasonal employment and suggest

techniques to retain the employees, meaning knowledge and experience,

therefore decrease in staff turnover, as well as offer more sustainable

employment. As a result, the scope of this work is narrowed to managerial

approaches to seasonal workforce.

This thesis has two objectives: to identify ways which are used to manage

seasonal workforce and find solutions to make seasonal hiring in hospitality

easier and more sustainable, using representative of Greek hotel industry as an

example.

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First of all, various sources are studied in order to understand the nature of

tourism seasonality and its impacts. Secondly, qualitative case study is

presented including desk study, semi-structured interviewing and participant

observation. To validate the findings triangulation method is used.

The result that should be delivered in the end is the scheme of solutions for the

companies experiencing seasonal variations in workforce demand. It means

techniques to retain the workers and strive for sustainable employment, which is

preferable in times of booming competitors and unfavorable economic

environment.

Need to decrease staff turnover and bring tourism employment on a new

prestigious and sustainable level, as well as need to understand seasonality

affects on tourism workforce make this work relevant.

2 SEASONALITY IN TOURISM

Seasonality is one of the key issues for a number of concepts and sciences:

geography, economy, geology, biology, sociology, psychology and many others.

It represents cyclic or periodic variations in a pattern or activity in any of the

above mentioned disciplines (Baum & Lundtrop, 2001, p. 1-4). Business and

financial seasonality can be defined as seasonal variations in business, or

economic activity that recur with regularity as the result of changes in climate,

holidays and vacations (Dictionary of Finance and Investment Terms).

Tourism as an integral part of global business is highly dependent on seasonal

changes in climatic conditions, economic activities as well as human behavior

and the society in general. Thus seasonality has become one of the most

distinctive and determinative features of global tourism industry. (Baum &

Lundtrop, 2001)

The concept of tourism seasonality can be defined as temporal imbalance in the

phenomenon of tourism, which can be expressed in the number of visitors, their

expenditure, traffic on different forms of transportation, employment and

admissions to attractions. Therefore it implies that the seasonality phenomena

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of tourism affects all aspects of supply-demand activities including pricing,

occupancy, human resource, supplies volume, offered activities and available

attractions etc. (Butler 1994, p. 5).

2.1 Causes and forms of seasonality

Seasonality occurs due to multiple reasons which can be caused by natural and

anthropogenic factors. Therefore seasonality takes forms of natural and

institutionalized ones.

- Natural seasonality stands for natural variations of air and water

temperature, level of rain or snowfall, amount of sunlight. Natural

seasonality associates with annual seasons and especially affects

remote and peripheral destinations with big temperature differences

between the seasons. Thus seasonality increases with the distance from

the equator. Destinations with warm and cold climate are exposed to

seasonal changes, due to different activities offered for tourists

depending on climate and season.

It shall not be forgotten that due to climate change natural seasonal

patterns can shift and this will influence tourism in affected destinations.

- Institutionalized seasonality is caused by human actions taken on social,

ethnical, organizational, religious and other basis. Unlike the natural

seasonality, dates of institutionalized seasonality can be established

more precise, as it often corresponds with school or public holidays,

religious events or pilligrimage, celebration or conduction of various

events and festivals, hunting etc. Fashion and social preferences can

cause this form of seasonality as well in some societies, together with

tradition and inertia. (Butler, 1994)

Several attempts to understand and classify the causes of seasonality in

tourism are found in literature. Table 2.1 presents an overview of studies and

articles devoted to tourism seasonality.

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Natural and institutionalised factors are generally recognised as the two major

causes for tourism seasonality. (Koenig & Bischoff, 2005)

Table 2.1 An overview of studies and articles devoted to tourism seasonality.

Author Categories of causes of tourism

seasonality BarOn 1975 - natural seasonality

- institutionalised seasonality

- calendar effects

- sociological and economic causes

Hartmann 1986 - natural seasonality

- institutionalised seasonality

Butler 1994 - natural seasonality

- institutionalised seasonality

- social pressure and fashion

- sporting seasons

- inertia and tradition

Butler/Mao 1994 - physical and socio/cultural factors

in the tourism generating and

receiving areas

Frechtling 2001 - climate/weather

- social customs/holidays

- business customs

- calendar effects

Study of BarOn (1975) “Seasonality in Tourism - A Guide to the Analysis of

Seasonality and Trends for Policy Making”, which is often mentioned in tourism

seasonality literature and considered to be one of the first academic research

on seasonality (Baum & Lundtrop), emphasizes natural and institutionalized

types of tourism seasonality, as well do the majority of authors. Social and

economic factors are mentioned by BarOn (1975) and Butler and Mao (1994).

Butler (1994) suggests that social pressure or fashion, the sporting season, and

tradition/inertia are significant additional causes of seasonality in his article on

issues and problems in seasonality in tourism, which was mentioned above

when defining tourism seasonality. Calendar effects have been identified as

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another important aspect by Frechtling (2001) in his study of forecasting tourism

demand.

Therefore, it is obvious that causes of seasonality vary to a great extent, and

are seen differently by different authors; as well it takes different forms as well

as depending on the destination and its nature (Smith 1990).

As the above mentioned factors can combine in one destination, they form so-

called push and pull-factors, building the picture of destination. (Lundtorp,

Rassing & Wanhill, 1999, 49-68).

Figure 2.1 Push- and pull-factors causing tourism seasonality in destination

(Lundtorp, Rassing & Wanhill 1999)

These factors interact when creating the seasonal character of destination.

From the scheme it is understood that seasonality takes place in both –

receiving and generating area and creating pull and push-factors, affecting

tourist flows. Butler and Mao (1997) stress that climate in the receiving area is

the foundation of “true tourism season”; as well as social and economic factors,

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events and activities influence the number of visitors. In order to tackle

seasonality, it is important to realize where seasonality is generated. Even

though considerable efforts were made to change seasonal patterns, there was

less effort to understand the fundamental causes of seasonality. (Hinch, Hickey

& Jackson, 2001, 173-186).

Seasonality is a measurable feature of tourism as it has great economic

importance and can be expressed in the number of visitors, their expenditure,

admissions to attractions, supply volume etc – i.e. quantitative characteristics,

although the basic unit to measure seasonality is the number of visitors.

Seasonal variations are examined, for instance by Wall and Yan (2003,191-

205), using monthly ratios (number of visitors for each month in a year divided

by the average monthly numbers of visitors for that year) along with their

deviations and the 'Seasonal Index'. Wilton and Wirjanto (1998), for example,

estimate the magnitude of the seasonal factors for 113 national tourism

indicators over the period 1986 to 1997.

Research on impacts of seasonal pattern represent a considerable part of

seasonality literature. Wall and Yan (2003) state the grow of seasonal impacts

together with the whole industry. Due to the increasing number of tourism

enterprises and the fact that they expanded in size, the ability to adapt to

changes and fluctuations has been reduced. The effects of seasonality vary

depending on the location and nature of destination and its attractions (Baum

and Hagen, 1994).

In his review of seasonality in tourism Chung (2009; 86) stated that, not

surprisingly, the majority of authors perceive seasonality negatively (Allcock,

1989; Edgell, 1990; Go, 1990; Laws, 1991; et al.). Three major problems of

tourism seasonality can be classified as economic, environmental and seasonal

employment (Koenig & Bischoff, 2005; Chung, 2009).

The economic impacts are related to low annual returns on capital (Cooper et

al., 2005). Cooper et al. (2005) together with Goeldner and Ritchie (2003) stress

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the uniqueness of hospitality industry, as it produces intangible products –

services, which cannot be stored and if are not sold at designated date, the

profit will be zero.

Environmental or ecological impacts occur due to the concentration of visitors

during the peak season. Grant et al. claims overcrowded rural lanes, wildlife

disturbance, erosion and litter problems to be the results of the increasing

number of tourists at high season times. Butler (1994) considers intensive

visitation in fragile environments the main environmental problem of

seasonality.

Another interesting problem of seasonal pattern of tourism is employment

challenge. Chung (2009) emphasizes lack of job demand in off-peak season

and decrease of employment rates. Therefore, employees are likely to leave the

destination in order to find more stable employment. As the tourism demand

fluctuates, labor market becomes unstable, which eventually leads to difficult

maintaining of certain economic status of destination (Szivas et al., 2003).

Cooper et al. (2005) emphasizes the increase of training costs for labor force

recruited on seasonal basis.

2.2 Seasonality in Tourism Employment

The seasonality phenomenon of tourism industry dramatically affects

employment in the industry, causing widespread peak-season employment,

underemployment and unemployment in off-season times. Marshall (1999)

defines seasonal job as: “non-permanent paid job that will end at specified time

or near future, once the seasonal peak has passed”. Seasonal jobs are

common for a number of industries besides tourism, for instance, agriculture

and construction. Interestingly, peak times in construction are often a case in

off-peak times in tourism destinations, as in no-season need for construction

and renovation of the premises increases.

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For instance, Canada, being a remote tourism destination highly exposed to

seasonality was an object of numerous studies on seasonal employment. As an

example, study of 1998 of Canadian Tourism Human Resource Council

(CTHRC) stated that out of 1.4 million workers engaged in tourism-related

sectors only 42% are employed full time with 23% employed seasonally. The

other 35% consist of part-time and casual employment (Jolliffe and Farnsworth,

2003).

Krakover (1999) describes tourism industry as an unattractive employer.

Seasonal pattern makes it unstable employment. Therefore, there is a need for

human resource managers to find, recruit, train and retain the talented workers.

For instance, Tsvetan Tonchev, president of the Bulgarian Chamber of Tourism,

states a 15% drop in seasonal tourism employment, yet “the sector actually

strives to employ skilled staff, particularly "trained and qualified service

personnel" (The Sofia Echo, web pages, 2010).

Business’s response to seasonality might vary according to the nature of

seasonality in the destination, business specification, general strategy of the

firm, and other internal and external factors. Jolliffe and Farnsworth (2003)

discuss two possible strategies used by business exposed to seasonal pattern

of tourism: “embracing” and “challenging”.

Embrace seasonality Challenge seasonality

Figure 2.3. Possible HR and business strategies to manage seasonality

in tourism

Jolliffe and Farnsworth (2003) explain these strategies as follows: “embracing”

seasonality means that company accepts seasonal character of the business

and designs its actions accordingly. The owners of such enterprises might

supplement their income with some other activities during off-season, or not to

express any wish to run a whole-year enterprise. Usually, “embracers” are

locals who use the tourism as a source of additional source of income.

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The “challengers” can be tour operators which are affected by seasonality in the

destination of operation. They challenge seasonality by extending the season

by lowering the rates on off-season times or designing off-season packages.

Also local premises can challenge the seasonality by lowering the rates, offering

additional services and activities, as well as subsidizing the employees.

Businesses, choosing either of strategies, should align their choice with human

resource practices used in the company. For instance, Belcourt and McBey

(2000) suggest practices for effective human resource by using external and

internal fits. External fit means aligning HR strategy with general the course of

business. In the case of embracing seasonality as a part of general strategy, the

HR policy of the company would support business further than regular season.

On the other hand, internal fit can be expressed in two types of alignment:

- Coordinating HR programs with other areas such as marketing

- Alignment between HR programs such retaining, development, appraisal,

compensation practices.

Using “fit” concept in strategic human resource management of tourism

enterprises will lead to acquiring desired behavior and service level shown by

employees. However, SHRM in hospitality should take into consideration

seasonal aspect; therefore SHRM will change for this particular industry (Jolliffe

and Farnsworth, 2003).

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Table 2.2 Human resource practices based on chosen approach to seasonality.

(Jolliffe 2003 )

Embrace seasonality HR practice Challenge seasonality

Focus on temporary

workers, retention in not

important

Staffing Focus on full-time core

workers, supplemented

with temporary workers.

Retention valued

Brief orientation and task

specific training

Training and

development

Continual training

(including cross training)

Informal appraisal; focus

on ability to perform

specific tasks

Performance appraisal Formal and informal

appraisal techniques;

focus on broader based

competencies and task

specific abilities

Match or lead

competitor’s base pay:

bonuses based on

staying entire season

Compensation Match competitor’s base

pays; benefits and merit

to encourage retention;

bonuses for staying

beyond normal season.

As it can be seen from the table, “challenge” seasonality strategy stands for

more complex set of actions and measures compared with “embrace”

seasonality business.

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2.3 Seasonality in Greek tourism

Tourism is the most vital industry in the Greek economy, particularly nowadays,

when Greece is experiencing harsh economical crisis. With the total of 16,165

million international arrivals in 2007 (UNWTO 2010), tourism accounts for 181

million Euro of Greece’s GDP (Chalkiti and Sigala 2009), with most tourists

coming from Germany, the United Kingdom and other European States.

Chalkiti and Sigala (2009) emphasize the following aspects of Greek tourism

industry:

- High competition with other Balkan destinations offering the same

product at lower price e.g. Bulgaria, Croatia and Turkey.

- High seasonality: resorts operate from May until October with 50% of

foreign tourists visiting Greece between July and September; and 70% of

Greeks doing vacation between May and September.

- Great delay in adoption of new technologies in tourism, due to lack of

ICT education and skills by company’s owners and workers.

- Shortage of qualified, educated and specialized labor force, with most of

the labor obtaining only high-school education (Ibid.).

The number of hospitality employees in Greece is estimated by Hellenic

Statistical Authority (2007) as 300,000.

Greek tourism industry is mainly represented by SMEs, as can be seen from the

table below.

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Table 2.3 Distribution of employees according to the size of the enterprise

(Hellenic Statistical Authority 2007)

Number of employees

Number of enterprises

Persons employed

1 41 120 29 365

2-9 59 707 146 531

10-19 2 406 23 218

20-49 941 17 304

50-249 202 6 121

250+ 26 4 302

According to findings of Chalkiti and Sigala, staff turnover is a very common

phenomena in the Greek tourism industry. Moreover, they claim it to be

unavoidable and continuous feature of tourism employment.

The findings of Chalkiti and Sigala are presented below:

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Table 2.4 Frequency of staff turnover and employment of departing employees

Insular regions Peninsular regions Total

N of respondets (24) %

N of respondets (39) %

N of respondets (63) %

Frequency of staff turnover

Rare 6 25% 16 41% 22 35%

Often 15 63% 21 54% 36 57%

All the time 3 12% 2 5% 5 8%

Total 24 100% 39 100% 63 100%

Employment destinations

Same corporation 11 46% 17 44% 28 44%

Other tourism enterprise 19 79% 334 87% 53 84%

Other non tourism enterprise 16 67% 24 62% 40 64%

Total 24 100% 39 100% 63 100%

The table demonstrates frequency of staff turnover depending on the

destination – insular or peninsular.

As it can be seen from the table, staff turnover in peninsular regions is lower. It

can be explained in numerous ways:

- Peninsular regions do not experience seasonality to tourism in the same

extent as insular

- High unemployment rates in Greek peninsular regions

- Non tourism sector is in the recession discouraging tourism staff

turnover.

As the object of this study – Grecotel Kos Imperial Thalasso is located in insular

destination, just as the majority of premises owned by the partner and operating

under the Grecotel’s name, this data is relevant for the study. The table shows

higher staff turnover in insular destinations.

In the same research by Chalkiti and Sigala causes and consequences of staff

turnover were analyzed with Likert scale as a scale of importance to be used for

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ranking causes: 1 = very significant and 9 = not significant. Seasonality was

ranked differently and therefore takes different levels of significance for workers

from peninsular and insular regions. With score of 2.16, seasonality has high

level of significance for employees in insular regions, compared with 4.30 in

peninsular regions. These scores validate the data of the above mentioned

study showing different perception of seasonality in different regions (Ibid).

The seasonal nature of tourism demand makes tourism unattractive to many

potential employees, nevertheless with recession in other economic sectors in

Greece, even seasonal employment is considered favorable.

3 INTRODUCTION OF THE PARTNER

The partner for this study is Grecotel S.A., represented by Grecotel Kos

Imperial Thalasso 5*. The company was founded in 1981; and since 1983 is

owned jointly by Daskalantonakis family and TUI Hotels and Resorts (Grecotel

S.A.; TUI). It should be mentioned that not all the premises are managed

jointly).

Grecotel is the largest national Greek chain consisting of 19 hotels with the

total bed capacity of approximately 10 000 beds. Resorts are operating from

May until October, the exact opening days depend on the booking situation in

the particular hotel, thus the company operation is highly seasonal, depending

on favorable weather conditions of the destinations, as well as institutionalized

summer holiday season. The resorts are located throughout the country and

allotted as follows in the table:

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Table 3.1 Grecotel’s resort classification and allocation (Grecotel 2010)

Destination Name of the premise Classification

Athens Cape Sounio Exclusive resort

Mykonos Mykonos Blu Exclusive resort

Corfu Corfu Imperial

Eva Palace

Daphnila Bay

Exclusive resort

5* resort

All-inclusive resort

Rhodes Rhodes Royal All-inclusive resort

Kos Kos Imperial Thalasso

Royal Park

Exclusive resort

All-inclusive resort

Peloponnese Lakopetra Beach

Mandola Rosa

Olympia Riviera

Olympia Oasis

All-inclusive resort

Exclusive resort

5* resort

All-inclusive resort

Crete Amirandes

Creta Palace

El Greco

Club Marine Palace

Plaza Spa Apartments

Kalliston

Exclusive resort

5* resort

4* resort

All-inclusive resort

4* resort

5* resort

Chalkidiki Pella Beach 4* resort

As it can be seen, the company can boast with wide geography on a national

level, as the resorts are located in major tourist destinations, and cover

customer segment from lower middle class (all-inclusive resorts) to higher class

(exclusive resorts). At the same time, Grecotel is executing Privilege Club

bonus program, and currently about 255,000 members are enrolled. (Grecotel

Privilege Club web pages)

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About 4000 people are employed in Grecotel, making the company the most

significant hospitality employer in the country, therefore executing research on

this firm shows the best practice and trends in managing seasonality in tourism

employment in Greek hotel industry.

Working in Grecotel S.A. is considered prestigious, due to social benefits and

career opportunities. The company offers study possibilities during no-season,

such as language and work programs in Austria and Germany for Front Office

and F&B employees. Social benefits include insurance, private blood bank,

accommodation and food provided. As for financial benefits, the salary in

Grecotel is quite average for hospitality industry worker in that region (e.g.

receptionist’s monthly wage is approximately 1200 Euro), the payments are

very stable and are on time, unlike in other tourism premises in Aegean and

Greece generally.

Nowadays, Grecotel S.A. is the leading national hotel chain in Greece in

number of hotels, as well as in number of internationally recognized awards in

fields of quality, service and environment; it is also the first Mediterranean hotel

company to have professional Culture and Environment Department. (Grecotel

Environment: Awards & Recognition, web pages)

3.1 GRECOTEL KOS IMPERIAL THALASSO

The place of executing the research was Grecotel Kos Imperial Thallasso, a

five-star resort located on the island of Kos, the Aegean. The hotel was built in

2002 and since then considered to offer the most exquisite and superb

accommodation and catering services on the island, which was experienced by

numerous experienced travelers, such as former president of the United States

of America Bill Clinton and Princess of Morocco, Her Highness Salma Lalla.

Facilities and services of the hotel include:

- 384 rooms including bungalows, villas, suites and Royal Pavilion

- 6 pools

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- Private beach

- Water sports station

- SPA

- Wi-Fi connection & internet corner

- Grecoland – children club

- Main restaurant “Lagoons” serving buffet breakfast and dinner included

in half board

- A la Carte “Pavilions”

- A la Carte “Pirates”

- Self service tavern

- Lobby, Pool and Beach bars

- Room service

- Hairdresser

- Boutique shop

- Jewelry shop

- ATM

- Conference facilities

(Grecotel Kos Imperial Thalasso web pages)

The hotel’s brochure is enclosed in Appendix 1.

Although, Grecotel S.A. is owned jointly with TUI, Grecotel Kos Imperial is

managed only by Daskalantonakis family. The major managerial decisions

come from head quarters in Athens concerning hotel operation and in Crete

concerning staffing in higher positions. The hotel organization looks as follows:

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Figure 3.1 Grecotel KI organization

3.2 Grecotel Kos Imperial Thalasso seasonality and employment

Hospitality employment is the main source of work places on the island;

combined with the fact mentioned above, the insular destinations in Greece are

more likely to experience seasonal unemployment and staff turnover (Chapter

4). After examining hotel occupancy rates both actual and forecasted, it was

possible to build a graph to illustrate business’s exposure to seasonality. (See

Appendices 2-7)

General Manager

Mr. Evlampios Grigoriadis

Room Division manager

Mr. Antonis Stamnas

Front Office, Reservations,

Guest Relations Department

Animation

HK

Maintainance, Gardeners

Food and Beverage

dpt

Mr. Stefanos Kitrinas

Restaraunts, Bars,Tasty

corner,

Room Service

Control,

Finance

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Figure 3.2 Grecotel Kos Imperial Occupancy rates

As it can be seen, the hotel is open from May until end of October, yet again

due to the seasonal pattern of a destination. In the year 2010 it stayed open

from 3rd of May until 23rd of October. Unexpected high occupancy in May is

explained by a tour operator event held on the island of Kos. The average

occupancy for operating season of 6 months is estimated 66% compared with

33% annually.

To provide service according to quality standards of the premises, staffing is

done according to the number of guests, hence – occupancy. (Ragazzini, G.,

interview, 2010). Since seasonality in tourism is often expressed in demand

deviations, using staffing strategies is a method used to embrace seasonal

variations and assign work tasks. Kos Imperial staffing charts (see Appendix 8)

were studied and simplified in order to find out changes of the number of

personnel depending on seasonal demand and occupancy. Staffing chart

shows staff distribution within the departments; as well as dependability on

department from variation of tourism demand. The simplified chart is presented

below.

0 %10 %20 %30 %40 %50 %60 %70 %80 %90 %

100 %

Hotel Occupancy Rates

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Guests 101-200 201-300 301-400 401-500 501-600 601-700 701-800 801-900 901-1000 1001-1100 1101-1200

Rooms 40-85 86-140 141-190 191-240 241-280 281-320 320-360 384 384 384 384

F&B Department 31.7 41.8 60.9 71.0 82.1 94.8 102.4 111.4 116.0 119.1 121.2

Administrative personnel 10 10 10 10 11 11 11 11 11 11 11

Front Office 6 6 6 7 8,5 9 9 9 9 9 9

Room Division Dpt 2 2 2 2 2 3 3 3 3 3 3

Housekeeping 13 13 14 16 18.5 18.5 20.5 41.5 42.5 42.5 42.5

Enterntainment 5 5 5 5 5 7,5 7,5 7,5 7,5 7,5 7,5

Maintenance 4 4 4 5 6 6 6 6 6 6 6

Beach/Pool personell 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 5 5 5

Gardeners 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4

SPA Dpt 4 5 6 7 7.5 7.5 8 8 8 8 8

Total 83.7 94.8 115.9 131.0 148.6 165.3 175.4 205.4 212.0 215.1 217.2

Employees per guest

0.56 0.38 0.33 0.29 0.27 0.25 0.23 0.24 0.22 0.20 0.19

Table 3.2 Staffing chart of Grecotel Kos Imperial

The chart shows the number of working personnel according to the department.

Decimal numbers refer to parted shifts. The total number of guest rooms is 384,

but the maximum amount of guests varies, due to multiple room types able to

accommodate from 3 to 9 persons. The number of employees varies depending

on number of guests and hotel occupancy. The chart makes it possible to

understand the connection between staffing and occupancy, hence seasonality.

The ratio employee/guest is calculated, and as it is visible the ratio is

decreasing with raising occupancy, therefore it is possible to conclude

decreasing level of service quality.

24

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4 METHODOLOGY

The methodology of this research is qualitative case study. The reason for this

choice is that the author seeks complex textual descriptions of how people and

businesses in general experience the problem of seasonality in tourism

employment. Therefore qualitative methods are preferable. As Mack et al.

(2005) compare quantitative and qualitative approaches, they state that

qualitative methods seek to explore phenomena as well as describe and explain

the relationship. Mack et al. (2005) discuss differences in general framework of

qualitative and quantitative research approaches. For instance, methods in

qualitative research are more flexible and semi-structured, which is used in this

particular research: semi-structured interviewing and participant observation are

implemented in the form of case study.

Case study as a method of qualitative research is preferable due to the fact that

phenomenon is studies within the context, and therefore it becomes possible to

develop and evaluate theories (Baxter and Jack, 2008). In order to understand

when to use qualitative case study approach Baxter and Jack (2008), refer to

the work of Yin (2003) on qualitative case study method. A case study as a

method should be considered when:

- The focus of the study is to answer questions “why” and “how”;

- The researcher cannot manipulate the behavior of people involved in the

study;

- The contextual conditions are considered to be relevant for the

phenomenon;

- The boundaries are not clear between the phenomena and context. (Ibid)

Yin (2003) categorizes case studies as explanatory, exploratory, or descriptive,

depending on the goal of the researcher. Also, case studies are differentiated

between single- and multiple-case studies. The table below presents the

definitions of the above mentioned types of case studies.

26

Case study type Definition

Explanatory The goal of researcher is to explain

presumed links which are too complex

for surveys

Exploratory The goal of researcher is to explore

the phenomena which have no clear

outcomes

Descriptive Researcher seeks to explain the

phenomenon and its real-life context.

Multiple-case study Researcher explores differences

between the cases

Table 4.1 Definitions of different case study types (Baxter and Jack, 2008)

The types of case studies should be considered by researcher when defining

the goals and objectives of the study.

4.1 Triangulation approach in qualitative case study

Qualitative research in tourism is very often blamed for lack of “good science”,

hence - the credibility and trustworthiness (Decrop, 1999). Therefore, using

triangulation in qualitative research can confirm qualitative findings, showing

that different sources corroborate each other and do not confront, consequently,

credibility will be increased (Ibid).

On the analogy of triangle, triangulation research method implies that a single

point will be analyzed from three different and independent perspectives or

sources (Decrop 1999). Therefore, the researcher, using triangulation,

examines the same phenomenon or research question from multiple data

sources, as the research information obtained from different sources can help

the researcher to corroborate or elaborate the problem. Thus the method adds

to transferability and confirmability of the research. Decrop discusses four types

of triangulation suggested by Denzin (1978) as follows:

27

- Data triangulation – various data sources are used in the study:

primary data/secondary data, interviews, observations, documents.

- Method triangulation – multiple methods are involved, e.g. semi-

structured interviewing and participant observation.

- Investigator triangulation – several research interpret the examined

issue.

- Theoretical triangulation – various perspectives are used, e.g.

interviews are examined from psychological and anthropological

perspective.

4.2 Using triangulation in qualitative case study to explore challenges of seasonal tourism employment

Common qualitative methods were implemented in the presented case study.

The reason of this selection is the wish to achieve trustworthy and credible

results. Therefore semi-structured interviewing, participant observation and

desk study are used in one case study.

Participant observation (Bruyn 1972) is a form of field research in which the

researcher becomes involved in the community being studied. The idea of this

method is to gather first-hand, personal knowledge, deeper understanding of

dynamics. Although, along with benefits, there are such challenges as

subjectivity in interpretation or problems with interpersonal or inter-group

interactions.

Examining the seasonal tourism employment problem from the

participant/observer perspective involved working on the premisse and

interacting with guests and co-workers in order to establish the picture of

seasonal job characteristics. At the same time, participant observation is a pre-

requisite for semi-structured interviewing, as after participating in the working

culture, questions for the interviews can be formulated.

The researcher was employed as a trainee in the Guest Relations department.

This position represents the link between the guests and the employees in order

to ensure prompt service and problem solving. Guest Relations department

28

employs 2 workers during the whole season, as well as provides training for

them, better accommodation and salary above average. The additional

employee is normally a trainee, preferably a Russian speaker.

The period of participant observation lasted for a week at the beginning of June

during the low season and from mid July until the end of August. Field notes

were taken when the observer noted particularly interesting facts about tourism

seasonality in business and colleagues’ responses towards it.

Semi-structured interviewing was chosen due to established relationships with

interviewees, flexibility and the possibility to add new questions throughout the

interview. This approach gives the opportunity to tailor questions to the

particular interviewee and conversation (Lindlof & Taylor 2002).

Interviews were conducted during the working hours, notes taken and analyzed.

As the interviews were semi-structured, question order and content varied,

depending on the department of an interviewee, his/her attitude and

involvement in the company’s human resource management. The interview key

questions are shown in Appendix 9.

Semi-structured interviews were conducted during June-August 2010 with

heads of following departments:

- Front Office (Ms. Despina Pantelidou)

- Room Division (Mr. Antonis Stamnas)

- Food and Beverage (Mr. Stefanos Kitrinas)

- Guest Relations (Ms. Elena Antonoglou),

including General Manager (Mr. Evlambios Grigoriadis) and Personnel Manager

(Mr. George Ragazzini).

Key points of interviews were scripted manually with permission of interviewees.

The results of semi-structured interviewing revealed interesting facts about

organization policy towards seasonal employment in the hotel and Grecotel S.A.

in general.

29

5 RESULTS

Participant observation method revealed the following key points related to

seasonal employment:

- Attitude degradation

- Unequal work distribution through the season

- Lowering service quality

- Physical and emotional wearing out (August)

- Prolonged shifts

- Confrontation between high-season and full-time workers

Attitude degradation is very common for seasonal workers in Grecotel,

especially those employed just for high-season. The workers consider the job

as temporary employment; therefore they do not strive to achieve the carrier

goals. In the beginning of the season employees are inspired, and towards the

end the only objective is to “get over the season”. The attitude level drops also

due to unfulfilled expectations. The company is well known and respectable,

although living and working conditions provided for some employees are not

exceeding expectations. Accommodation and food provided are of a low quality,

although it is considered tolerable for seasonal employment. The most

interesting observation, which was also confirmed by Personnel manager

(Ragazzini, 2010), is that attitude degradation and loss of interest comes at the

end of August, although this is not related with high work load, but with

tiredness since the beginning of the season; and the employee starts to wait for

the premise closure. This effect is created by “snow-ball” effect gathering all the

negative characteristics of seasonal hotel employment together.

The pressure in Grecotel working environment is created by unequal work

distribution, causing frustration in the low season period and exceeding the

norms work load during the high season times. To support this statement it is

useful to examine the staffing chart again. As it can be noticed, the amount of

workers during low occupancy rate times is 3 times lower than during the peak

season. The amount of workers shows not the real number of workers

employed, but the number of workers occupied for that particular period of time.

Therefore, the exceeding labor force has plenty of days off, which causes

30

frustration and anger, due to the daily wages crediting and the fact that most of

the workers are not from local area but have moved only for the work during the

summer season.

Lowering service quality can be seen from the simplified staffing chart (Chapter

5). Although the number of staff increases with occupation rate growing, the

employee per guest ratio in constantly decreasing. Thus the stress levels are

rising together with work load. Using participant observation, it was possible to

notice the rising number of guests’ complaint towards the personnel in the F&B

department for instance. It should be mentioned that this department employs

most workers; and it is exposed to seasonality to a higher degree.

Despite negative observations, it is important to mention that the observer,

along with the other employees intending to build a career in luxury tourism

sector, were fascinated by the glamour side of 5 star property, as well as future

career and financial opportunities. Baum (2007) discusses the “glamourness” of

luxury tourism employment referring to Bemelmans, who describes hotel work

as climbing to the position in higher management.

To conclude the finding using participant observation it should be mentioned,

that seasonal hotel employment is more stressful and challenging, due to

unequal work distribution, as well as cultural diversity at work, which is a very

common issue in seasonal resort destination.

The results of semi-structured interviewing clearly showed dissonance in

company’s attitudes towards managing seasonality in employment and staff

turnover. To present the results, Figure 3.2 (Possible HR and business

strategies to manage seasonality in tourism), should be observed again.

Embrace seasonality Challenge seasonality

31

The results from interviewing showed that HR policies and the nature of

employment are different for different departments. With the General Manager

and Personnel Manager following the general course of actions of Grecotel S.A.

and ensuring correct operation of the premise, other departments manage

seasonal employment according to circumstances. Thus Front and Back offices

are represented by smaller number of employees, with the majority of them

holding related hospitality or business degree at Bachelor level. The staff

turnover in these departments is lower, as well as the season is prolonged. The

financial outcomes are good, together with the employment which is considered

prestigious. HR practices are better and vertical fit is used.

Comparatively, F&B and Housekeeping departments employ the majority of

workers in the premises, yet offering them fewer benefits for the shorter time

period. At the same time, workers obtain lower education levels or non-

hospitality related education. The staff turnover is higher, as the job is

temporary and the workers are not seeking hospitality career, but any source of

income.

To summarize the findings and relate them to seasonality managing theory the

below presented scheme was built.

32

Challenging

seasonality

Embracing

seasonality

FRONT OFFICE

BACK OFFICE

FOOD & BEVERAGE

HOUSEKEEPING

•smaller departments

• better HRM

• less turnover – knowledge retaining

• better financial outcomes

• tourism or business related education

• prolonged season

• prestigious employmen

•big departments

• F&B dpt – young employees

no intense in building career in hospitality

• low education level

• no other work options

•low quality employment

• high turnover

Figure 5.1 Graphical model based on the results of semi-structured interviewing

The figure shows the division of company’s strategy towards the seasonality

depending on the department. The characteristics and outcomes of seasonal

hotel employment vary according to the number of employees, their educational

and professional background, as well as career opportunities and financial

benefits.

The findings show that a tourism business can combine both major approaches

towards seasonality in order to make the functioning of the company more

efficient. As it was noticed, staff turnover is a common issue in seasonal

employment; the company strives to minimize turnover in administrative

departments, in order to retain the knowledge and enhance the experience of

the worker, as well as prevent the knowledge leaks to major competitors. On

the other hand, departments with bigger number of personnel, e.g.

33

Housekeeping and Food & Beverage departments do not struggle to retain

personnel and their skills. This happens due to the fact that employees in these

departments perform low-skilled tasks and very often do not possess sufficient

hospitality education or are educated in other fields. These positions are

considered temporary employment until the employee finds a better option

(unseasonal job, job in the area of expertise, workplace with better financial or

career opportunities); or the only possible type of employment – for instance,

housekeeping department employs women in retirement age.

The interviewees also stated that they are not familiar with the theory of

managing seasonality strategies and act inertially.

The findings suggest that new HRM practices should be used in order to make

the employment in Grecotel more sustainable and reliable. Staff turnover should

be reduced and knowledge accumulated and distributed among employees.

6 SUGGESTIONS ON IMPROVING SEASONAL EMPLOYMENT

Seasonal tourism companies face more challenges than those operating all-

year round, due to the need to acquire productive and service minded, yet

seasonal and part-time employees. Selecting and hiring the adequate number

of workers, however spending less sources on orientation and training is a

significant human resource challenge. What makes the issue even more

challenging is that the company has to retain productive and professional staff

while relying on inexperienced and low-skilled employees. Seasonal workers

have less time to acclimate to the work environment, yet they have to perform at

peak levels. Thus bringing back workers year by year can reduce training costs

and increase the level of customer service, which is beneficial for the employer.

On the other hand, an employee benefits from coming back to the seasonal

premises, as he knows the work and its environment, therefore stress level is

reduced, and the nature of employment takes a sustainable form.

34

Consequently, seasonal worker retaining is beneficial for both: employee and

employer.

There are numerous tools to attract workers to come back to the premise.

Some of them presented below will be useful for Grecotel Kos Imperial, as a

resort hotel experiencing seasonality to a great extent.

- In order to determine employees’ satisfaction and willingness to build a

career in Grecotel, the management has to establish better

communication with employees. Grecotel’s working culture is so that

management communicates with employees only in case of a problem

which cannot be solved independently. The idea of a worker’s survey

might help the company understand the worker’s satisfaction,

performance appraisal and future career plans.

- A relatively simple and low-cost method which can be used by SMEs as

well is simply keeping in touch with workers after the season is over, by

sending cards, company’s newsletter etc. To do so, the company should

keep the worker’s contact information updated and relevant, so they

could be contacted and offered jobs for the next season. (Kleiman 2005)

- A financial benefit can be offered to retained workers, e.g. a bonus for

coming back the next season again. For instance, Ismert and Petrick

(2004) found that only $0.25 increase per hour was sufficient to

positively influence the intention to return. As the wage is calculated daily

in Grecotel, daily raise can be suggested. It is interesting to notice, that

this practice is used for trainees: first year students receive 20 Euros per

shift and each year receive in addition 1 Euro per shift. Surprisingly, this

practice is not used for permanent employees.

- In order to manage experienced and educated employees, the company

should train “multi-taskers”. Thus the employee can have better career

opportunities in future within the company or outside; and an employer

can rely on less workforce and distribute the worker between the

departments in low-season times when employees suffer from frustration

and get lower wage.

35

The practices presented above are easy to follow, yet then increase trust in

employer-employee relationship, and make the workers return and wish to build

career in the field and become more eligible for future hospitality employment.

The presented strategies may yield any company using challenging seasonality

as a main approach.

Rossheim (2010) suggests that seasonal hiring creates problems which “stem

from a failure of the company’s leadership to devote energy and resources to

assembling an optimal seasonal workforce”.

Hiring in Grecotel is done via interview sessions conducted by General

manager; the quality of selections suffers , as the manager has almost 100

interviewees per day. In order to make seasonal hiring easier and more

efficient, following approaches are needed to be taken into consideration by

management (Ibid.)

- Sourcing the channels offering candidates looking only for seasonal

employment should be used, for instance, graduate students, or current

hospitality students, looking for internships. In that case, cooperation

with educational institutions should be developed to a greater extent.

- Enough time should be dedicated to successful onboarding and training.

Usually, training in Grecotel done at the beginning of the season, when

only core personnel is present, thus, seasonal personnel misses the

trainings and lacks the knowledge. Therefore, training sessions should

be conducted as new workers arrive.

- Accurate job descriptions for each department should be written

- Talent-management should be implemented in order to identify talented

worker and assign them to more demanding positions. For that matter,

as it was mentioned before, better communication between personnel

and management must be established, which is a disadvantage in

Grecotel due to high power distance in a working culture.

- Personnel should be treated not as seasonal but as permanent. Potential

next season workers should be praised for their performance to ensure

their comeback the next season.

36

The presented tools can help Grecotel to decrease turnover, which is a

common problem for seasonal tourism employment and simplify hiring and

selection, by having the same employees year by year.

7 CONCLUSION

For the whole tourism industry it becomes more and more important to retain

workers with knowledge together. In the service industry the employee is the

key to the satisfaction of the customer, consequently the success of the

company. In order to ensure service quality, attention to the quality of

employment should be paid, which is a challenge due to the seasonal nature of

tourism employment.

To improve the quality of employment, seasonality nature and its implications

on Human Resource Management were studied. This thesis aimed to identify

challenges of seasonal businesses concerning recruitment, staffing and

retention of personnel. The object of the study was a five star resort Grecotel

Kos Imperial Thalasso, which can be considered a provider of “best practice” in

the destination.

Through the work, such interesting and remarkable phenomenon of seasonality

in tourism was examined, limited to the subject of seasonal employment; yet

there is plethora of subjects in tourism which can be studied through the lens of

seasonality; a correlation between occupancy and staffing was found, together

with company’s attitude and strategies towards variations in seasonal demand.

Unexpectedly, lack of HRM strategies to retain core personnel in service

positions was found, as well as need to enhance communication between

management and workforce to ensure mutual understanding and striving for

common goals.

Due to fast developing tourism industry, especially when building new resorts in

southern destinations, the findings and suggestions can be used to maintain

sustainable employment and training the employees. Thus, the usefulness in

working life of tourism businesses experiencing seasonality is evident, but it

would be suggested to SMEs lacking HR department and distributing related

37

responsibilities between the departments, to ensure better employer-employee

relations. The suggestions and techniques presented the final chapter can be

used not only in seasonal hospitality employment, but also in any business

experiencing seasonal demand.

The presented research was a remarkable and definitely practical experience

for the author, due to the future career plans in resort destinations, and

preferably in HR department. Better understanding of hotel management in

general was acquired with the help of interviewees. On the other hand, another

part of triangulation research – participant observation gave to the author vital

professional experience in hospitality industry.

Despite being long recognized as unalienable part of tourism, the subject of

tourism seasonality still lacks academic research. The author hopes that the

presented paper will be useful not only to tourism companies tackling

seasonality but also further researchers.

38

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Goeldner, C. R. and Ritchie, J. R. B. (2003). Tourism: Principles, Practices, Philosophies (9th ed.). New York Grecotel Environment: Awards & Recognition, http://www.grecotel.com/environment/awards-recognition_3942.htm, visited on 05.10.2010 Grecotel Kos Imperial Thalasso web pages www.grecotel.com/kos/kos-imperial-thalasso, visited on 08.07.2010 Grecotel offers by TUI http://www.tui.com/specials/Produktsuche%20f%C3%BCr%20Pauschalreise%20&%20Hotel/?q=grecotel+griechenland&qp=tui&submit=, visited on 08.07.2010 Grecotel Privilege Club web pages www.grecotelprivilegeclub.gr, visited on 08.07.2010 Hellenic Statistical Authority, 2007. Repot on Tourism Employment Statistics. Web pages. www.statistics.gr. Visited on 05.10.2010 Hinch, T. D., Hickey, G. P., & Jackson, E. L. 2001. Seasonal Visitation at Fort Edmonton Park: An Empirical Analysis Using a Leisure Constraints Framework. Ismert, M.,Petrick, J.F. 2004. Indicators and Standards of Quality Related to Seasonal Employment in the Ski Industry. Journal of Travel Research, 43 Jolliffe, L., Farnsworth, R., 2003, International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management. Kleiman, M, 2005. How to Retain Seasonal Workers. Restaurant Hospitality. Web pages. http://restaurant-hospitality.com/observer/rh_imp_10481/ visited 01.11.2010 Koenig, N., Bischoff E., 2005. Seasonality Research: the state of art. University of Wales Swansea Lindlof, T.R., Taylor, B.C. 2002 Qualitative Communication Research Methods. Sage Publications, Thousand Oaks, CA Lundtorp, S., Rassing, C. R., & Wanhill, S. R. C. 1999. The Off-season is 'No Season': the case of the Danish island of Bornholm. Tourism Economics, 5(1): 49-68. Mack, N., Woodsong, C., MacQueen, K., Guest, G., Namey, E., 2005, Qualitative Research Methods: A Data Collector’s Field Guide, Family Health International Marshall, K. 1999, Seasonality in Employment, Perspectives, Statistics Cannada, Ottawa

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Appendix 1 Grecotel KI brochure

42

Appendix 2 Hotel Occupation/Forecast May

43

Appendix 3 Hotel Occupation/Forecast June

44

Appendix 4

Hotel Occupation/Forecast July

45

Appendix 5 Hotel Occupation/Forecast August

46

Appendix 6 Hotel Occupancy/Forecast September

47

Appendix 7 Hotel Occupancy/Forecast October

48

49

Appendix 8 Grecotel SA Staffing chart

50

51

Appendix 9 Semi-structured interview key questions

- Number of employees in department - Core workers/seasonal workers/trainees ratio - Staff retaining/training/hiring - Department’s benefits and career opportunities - Conflicts - Work distribution during the season - Stress level and coping with stress